Newcastle Fans’ Call To Action Against Ashley

Written by Dr. Ed Harrison

12:16am Tuesday, September 9th, 2008

Commented 280 times

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The Mag and true faith fanzines have rightly called for Ashley’s business interests to be targeted by the fans of Newcastle United and other supporters who would like to help in the effort to get Mike Ashley out of Newcastle.

Mike Ashley – his business interests will be targeted

The joint statement by the fanzines is as follows:

Like many Newcastle United supporters we have been sickened by the events of the last week and the departure of Kevin Keegan from his position as manager of our club. We believe Kevin had little alternative but to resign given the gross incompetence and mismanagement of Dennis Wise, Executive Director of Football and Derek Llambias, Managing Director who like Kevin were appointed by Mike Ashley.

While Kevin Keegan remained at Newcastle United the fans trusted that the club was moving forward at last, with Keegan’s departure all trust has gone.Both The Mag and true faith believe there has been a fundamental break in trust between board and the support.

Both true faith and The Mag have been inundated by requests from supporters keen to take action against those within the boardroom of Newcastle United.

Having read many hundreds if not thousands of e-mails sent into both fanzines we are recommending the following action in protest at its appalling treatment of Kevin Keegan and the entirely unworkable structure it has established at the club, namely around the club’s transfer policy.

That initial action includes:

* An immediate and indefinite boycott of all Newcastle United merchandise to include replica shirts, other club clothing and any items sold at official NUFC outlets. It will also include the non-purchase of all Newcastle United programmes and magazines as well as food, drinks and beverages of any description. This boycott will include raffle tickets, lotteries and any other products associated with Newcastle United Football Club. This to include also a boycott of all club bars including Shearer’s Bar as well as club cafes, official club tours, visits to the NUFC museum and any other activity which generates an income for Newcastle United.

* This boycott to be extended to any retail outlet or product owned either in full or in part by Mike Ashley e.g. Sports Soccer, Lillywhites etc.

* We do not advocate a boycott (this is backed up overwhelmingly in the emails we have received) of the game against Hull City at SJP on Saturday 13/Sep/08. Newcastle United’s players have done nothing wrong and certain individuals have behaved impeccably given the manner in which their manager and team-mates have been treated this last week. They remain deserving of our support.

* We advocate supporters vocally expressing their disgust against the current regime whether they are at the match or not, which will act as a clear demonstration of the antipathy of supporters towards Ashley, Llambias and Wise. There should be no abuse directed at any Newcastle United player.

* We insist that Mike Ashley does not attend away games amongst the traveling support. He is not a Newcastle United supporter and as far as true faith and The Mag are concerned he is not welcome amongst our ranks. If any effort is made by Ashley to attend future away games we would recommend the away support to vocally remind him he is not wanted amongst us. We do not advocate violent disorder of any description.

Michael Martin, Editor, true faith

Mark Jensen, Editor, The Mag

We don’t know what the chances of forcing Mike Ashley out of Newcastle are, but it’s certainly worth the try.

There’s always a chance that some buyer, maybe not even yet identified, will come in and offer the owner something that is acceptable to him, and the nightmare of having Mike Ashley as owner of Newcastle United will be over.

We hope that will happen sooner rather than later, so we can salvage something, like keep Michael Owen at the club, as one example.

This is the first sensible thing i have seen written. The boycott of Shearers bar will be something that is very visible to all. I’m glad to see that everyone will continue to support the players. They need it now more than ever.

intersting new info from the vice president of reliance Ed – its worth mentioning. The so called article using the reliance Vp’s name that was mentioned in press yesterday said that reliance were not interested, HOWEVER, the true VP has today stated as a fact that ‘i do not know where that statement came from as i have not spoke to anyone regardinf Newcastle united’. Now this may be nowt but it may be something, cos what this looks like to me is that Reliance are denying, that htey have said they are not interested in buying us.

following on, you know what i think, I think that ashley sources have leaked that lie to make us think no-one wants us. Its crap, and its designed to weaken our ranks. It IS VERY significant that within 24 hours Reliance have denied the story that says they arnt interested.

ED, i have a propostion for you. I am off-shore in the middle of the ocean at the minute. If you can get in touch with a tabloid paper or a national paper regarding a large Ad in big bold letters, something simple like ‘ A message from Newcastle United Fans: Ashley we want you out – i will pay for it out my own pocket. let me know.

I AGREE WITH U TOM_TOON…I THINK SO MANY NEWCASTLE FANS ARE JUST BEING UTTERLY FOOLISH….ARGUING WITH AND FOLLOWING THEIR EMOTIONS AND NOT LOOKIN AT REAL ISSUES….

THIS IS NUFC…NO KK’S FC…KK CAN GO…BUT NUFC WILL STILL EXIST

AND IT’S UP TO US TO GET BEHIND MANAGEMENT TO MOVE US FORWARD.

A LOT OF FANS SAY COMMENTS FROM NEWCASTLE WERE CONTRAARY TO DETAILS OF KK’S CONTRACT THAT WERE RELEASED THE OTHER DAY..

BUT WHAT ELSE DID U REALLY WANT THEM TO TELL U LOT…WITH OVERLY HIGH UNREALISTIC EXPECTATIONS

THAT UR BELOVED KK THEY’D BROUGHT IN WILL NOT HAVE COMPLETE CONTROL OVA WHO CAME IN OR NOT

KK OBVIOUSLY AS FIRST TEAM COACH WAS ALWYS GOIN TO HAVE A SAY..MAYBE NOT THE FINAL SAY….ANY IDIOT SHOULD KNOW THAT

THE POINT IS KK PROBABLY WANTED SO MUCH….BEYOND WHAT THE CLUB COULD AFFORD OR EVEN ATTRACT (MIND U WE ARE NOT EVEN PLAYIN IN EUROPE THIS SEASON TO ATTRACT PLAYERS OF THAT CALIBRE)…AND WE DEFINITELY NEEDED TO BRING IN MORE QUALITY…KNOW HOW OBSTINATE KK CAN BE…I’M SURE HE WANTED HIS “DREAM PLAYERS” OR NU’IN ELSE…WHILST WISE AND CO REASOSNED THAT WE PROB NEEDED THE PLAYERS MORE THAN THAT SILLY CHILDISH STUNT KK WAS TRYIN TO PULL SO WENT AHEAD WITH A LAST DAY BUYS…THEN THE TODDLER KK DECIDED TO THROW A TANTRUM

WHAT WE NEED TO BE DOIN IS ENSURING THAT WE GET THE BEST REPLACEMENT FOR KK…U SEE WHEN WE ALL GET DRAW INTO ALL THIS EMOTIONAL STUFF WHICH WILL NOT MOVE THE CLUB ANY FURTHER….WE LOSE THE PLOT..AND ARE NOT ABLE TO CONTRIBUTE CONSTRUCTIVELY WHEN OTHERWISE WE CLD HAVE BEEN ABLE TO

tom toon i agree with u to a certain extent, there is huge hype about MA stemming from the emotional departure of the king

MA has cleared debt and brought in some young talent, aswell as jonas and colo who i think our class signings,, however id still like a takeover because ashley wont spend huge and thats what id love t see, but don get me wrong if he does stay it is not all doom and gloom

who u want as the next manager??as im sick of the asley keegan talk and jus want to look forward, if i could have manager tomo it would b sven

Tom Toon – Mort clearly said that KK would have the final say on in’s and outs. That was not the case and imagine what would have happened to our season if they had flogged Barton and Owen at the end of the transfer window. We could have easily have gone down this season and may still!

Im 50/50 on the whole scenario at the end of the day KK has walked out on nearly every club he has come to managed… So it didnt come as a huge shock to see him do it again.

MA has undoubtibly done a great thing in clearing our debt, but even if he was to sell, what difference would it make? because he would sell it so that he made some profit on it. aka, the quoted 240 million or whatever.

I don’t think he will be gone by the end of the season, this boycott stuff, while it shows you support newcastle minus the backroom staff, it doesnt really show much respect for the players (even though your still supporting them) what will the players think? aka, colo and xisco? They’ll want out asap!

Theres been a few managers mentioned, i like the idea of Zico saying he would be interested, it’s on SS website.

ok tom toon. i will tell you what i think he has done wrong although i may well miss alot of stuff out too everyone lese please feel free to remind me and tom what else cashley has done wrong. He lies constantly about everything to everyone all the time. You dont need me to teel you what cos its been well documented over the last few days by the LMA what his more obvious lies are. the LMA has missed out some though, for instance, you say he has paid off the debt – who says he has – him and mort, thats all. Lets look at morts famous statement ‘ as of now, this club does not owe a penny to anyone’. Now lets look at Ashleys quote in the first home mag of the season ‘ we are still paying for players that no longer play for us’. Now you tell me Tom, you reckon that sounds like we are not in debt? Who says he has paid a been off? He is certainly acting like he has paid nothing off at all as he has not spent a penny on our club in two full transfer windows. He bought no-one in january, every person he bought in in this last window was off-set by who he sold. Milner, rozza and emre alone brought in 20 million. plus the fringe players sold and released gave fat mike a massive saving on salaries. All fans are being treated with pure contempt, NUFC raised its prices by a prem leading 10% this year but actually cut back on its overheads and invested no money on the pitch. At the same time, tv revenue was massivley increased. As it was, we were one of only five clubs that turned a profit in fat freds last tenure and that was with all of the debt and huge player wages such as dyer, bowyer and many more. This man is making alot of money from us and at the same time pleading poverty. In the 12 months since he has been in charge it has been one disaster after another an a complete PR shambles. from getting rid of fat sam when they tried to bring in harry, and then deny it afterwards to where we are today. We are run out of london by a cockney. Our chairman if that is what he is is a casino owner and another southerner. None of our board actually live or support newcastle or have any afinity in the area. Every single footballing person that ahs spoken about our situation has spoken against it, not one name has came out and said they think its great the way we are being run. The list goes on forver, shearer, sir bobby, moyes, ginola, ferdinand, the LMA, bezza and on and on, the list is endless. In the last week of the transfer window every single player was palced up for sale at the right price. They tried to sell owen to spurs on deadline day. Milner was sold behind the entire coaching staff’s backs and players were brought in without anyone knowing, they just turned up at the training ground. Milner has since came out nad said that we are a complte shambles behind the scenes and we are only seeing the tip of an iceburg thats been there for a while. i am worn out sayingthings although i could go on for yonks about it. If you still like MA after all of this Tom then i am affraid that i will never agree with you and that we will never see eye to eye. I fail to see what you are supporting, really i do. the fans are newcaslte united, its always been the fans that have made us great. Mike ashley might own newcaslte united but what does he really have, some bricks and some grass – big deal. he has lost the fans forever, with perhaps the ecception of you maybe. Good luck tom, ya on ya own on this one.

Darryl: The players watched James Milner ask for a new contract and be sold. They’ve seen a manager they liked and respected allowed to leave. There are rumors that they all were for sale on the deadline day. What makes you think they don’t already want out ASAP?

Anyway, while I firmly agree that there is nothing wrong with a ‘continental system’, it has to be correctly implemented, and I can’t help but feel that the one Ashley has imposed on NUFC is a bit askew.

Yes, having a team concerned with transfers and contracts will take a lot of pressure of a manager, allowing him to focus upon first team matters. However, this team has to be working on the behalf of, or at least in conjunction with the manager, with good communication and the manager having the ultimate say in the matter.

After all, he is the one who will be held ultimately responsible for the performance of these players on the pitch.

The system present at NUFC just seems unworkable if Dennis Wise can buy and sell whoever he likes without a care for the wishes of the man in charge of the first team.

I was in favour of this sytem when it first emerged we were going down that road, but said at the time that it will only work if all those concerned worked together.

Sadly it seems Dennis Wise and the rest of the ‘board’ were off doing whatever they wanted, with utter disregard for Keegan’s thoughts and opinions. I also seriously doubt Keegan really wanted them to go out and buy Beckham, Henry and Lampard too, that whole story stinks of Tabloid BS.

If you are unable to see why Keegan felt so compelled to resign, when he was having players he knew nothing at all about added to the squad, whilst also finding out at the last minute that the board were trying to sell the best goalscorer on the books without even bothering to tell him, then frankly I think you need to have a reality check.

1. Claimed to have wiped the debt time and time again when all he’s done is replaced some loans with another ie we owe him the £80m, not whoever we did before. £25 million is still outstanding on transfers.

2. Went back on his word to give KK final say on all transfers.

3. Sold Milner and held the funds.

4. Failed to give KK the money to buy the 3 players we needed to complete the squad.

5. Put the entire 1st team squad up for sale.

6. Ripped the fans off by selling 3yr season tickets and not releasing the funds taken by sales.

7. Released false and misleading statements regarding KK’s role at the club.

not disputin what ur sayin chris just curious, where did milner say that?? im noy happy wit how milner leavt i think he owed the club and tbh felt he wasn up to it so went to villa where he could have an easier ride

1. Claimed to have wiped the debt time and time again when all he’s done is replaced some loans with another ie we owe him the £80m, not whoever we did before. £25 million is still outstanding on transfers.

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He has wiped the bank debt, the £25 million is still owed on transfers in installments and since it’s written into the contract that it will be paid in instalments then there’s not much he can do.

Piman… every season people say ‘we could or will go down’ … we won’t go down. I doubt we’ll qualify for the CL somehow but we won’t go down…. AND even if we did go down, I fail to see how Barton would make much difference either way. Ashley trying to sell Barton is probably more to his credit than to his detriment, selling Milner for 12million was a stroke of genius. Owen? Looks like he is stalling on a contract anyway…. I can understand the thinking if that is the case.

Elvis has left the building… why get your hopes up about improbable takeovers and even more fairytale KK re-re-re-returns – we have a good young squad, hopefully a decent manager will be brought in – Zico, Fatih, Van Gaal and we can crack on again and get the club back on track and win some bas**rd football matches… not that I remember what they are anymore….

HOW MANY OF THE FOLLOWING ARE REALLY TRUE…SUPPORTED BY WHICH FACTS….TABLOIDS?

Things ashley has done wrong—

1. Claimed to have wiped the debt time and time again when all he’s done is replaced some loans with another ie we owe him the £80m, not whoever we did before. £25 million is still outstanding on transfers.

2. Went back on his word to give KK final say on all transfers.

3. Sold Milner and held the funds.

4. Failed to give KK the money to buy the 3 players we needed to complete the squad.

5. Put the entire 1st team squad up for sale.

6. Ripped the fans off by selling 3yr season tickets and not releasing the funds taken by sales.

7. Released false and misleading statements regarding KK’s role at the club.

health update

I was diagnosed with stage 4 prostate cancer in February 2017 and completed four months of chemotherapy in late July and will continue to have hormone treatment.

After having various cat scans and a full bone scan recently, I met with the medical oncologist yesterday for a review of my condition.

The cancer in the bones has stabilized and has not spread further, and my PSA count has decreased significantly to being less than 0.1.

I am still recovering from some of the side effects of the chemo treatment - mainly severe fatigue and exhaustion.

Stage 4 cancer is not curable so I will continue to have cat scans and bone scans every four months to ensure the disease is not spreading.

Hopefully, the hormone treatment will keep working for a while yet and then we will switch to some other treatments that have been developed over the last few years.

It is as it is - I accept it - and will do the very best I can under the circumstances.

Ed Harrison

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